Current student willing to answer questions!

pccool52 · 09-30-2008, 11:53 PM

Hey, I'm a freshmen here at Creighton this year and I want to answer your questions about Creighton. By the way, I'm in honors program so I can give info about that too. Don't be shy!

findingnemo · 10-13-2008, 11:18 PM

What is it like being a freshman at Creighton? What are the kids like? Do they study a lot? Do they party a lot? What is life in the dorms like? Are there lots of activities? Thanks.

pccool52 · 10-14-2008, 01:08 AM

hey findingnemo! So far my experience at Creighton has been amazing. So far, college has been much more fun than high school. First, you have only a couple classes a day (normal at any college), so you have a lot of time outside of school. But, you also have more studying to do, so it kind of evens out. Still, it is just much more flexible than high school.
As for classes, they aren't too bad so far. There are some easy and some tough ones, nothing ridiculous though. Virtually all my teachers know me by name which is really cool. My largest class so far is gen chem that has about 30 students in it. Creighton is located in downtown Omaha, so there is a ton of stuff to do off campus. I've already made a lot of friends here and I knew no one before I came here. Students here are really nice and down to earth. While you get a bunch of students from Nebraska, there are people from all over the country. Just on my floor, I know people from Connecticut, California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Hawaii to name a few. So the entire US is represented well here. Students here obviously study, some more than others. The majority of people here know how to study and still have a good time. Study hard, play hard. There is definitely a party scene if you look for one either at frats or downtown. There is also a lot to do for the majority of people (freshmen at least) who don't drink every weekend.
Dorm life here is great. My roommate is really cool and so far everyone I know is getting along. The only thing that sucks is doing laundry, already shrunk one shirt haha. Generally you just have a bunch of freedom which is awesome. I'm in Swanson Hall which has private bathrooms by the way. As for activities, I already joined an intramural ultimate frisbee team with my friends. Creighton has an activities fair in September where all the organizations and clubs set up booths on the mall(main walkway) for freshmen to join them. I already signed up for like 3 different clubs and organizations.
So yeah, that's a long winded response. Hopefully it helps!

findingnemo · 10-14-2008, 05:49 PM

Sounds great! I was wondering a couple more things. How is the food? Is there very much school spirit? I know Creighton doesn't have football, does that seem weird? Do many people have cars and can you walk into town (or is it not safe)? And do you have to have played ultimate before to be on the team? Thanks for all your help!

pccool52 · 10-14-2008, 09:46 PM

The food here overall is good. One thing Creighton has is a lot of options for dining. First there are Brandeis and Becker dining halls which are the main cafeterias. They are all you can eat but the quality of food is just decent. Better than high school no doubt, but not spectacular either. Then there is Skutt and Davis Diner that have great food, but it's a little bit more expensive. So, overall the food is good, just have to mix it up. School spirit is big, maybe not as big as a state school like u of nebraska, but still very much present. The one downfall of Creighton for me is the lack of football, however this isn't that much of a big deal. The men's soccer team pretty much replaces a football team. Right now, Creighton's soccer team (mens) is ranked second in the country D1, so the team is amazing. Morrison stadium is equally amazing. Many students go to the soccer games. Basketball season will just get better in the Qwest center!
I would say about a quarter of the freshmen have cars. I don't have one personally and I'm fine. I just bum off people when I need to go to the store. People are really nice about bringing you too. You can walk into town which is awesome. However, I wouldn't recommend walking alone at night. And, you basically never want to venture to north omaha. It's unfortunately not a good neighborhood.
No one on my ultimate team had ever played the sport before. I just got some friends together and made a team. Intramural sports are really chill, no talent needed. there are club sports teams that are more competitive and require some skill to be on the team too.
tell me about yourself! have you visited campus yet? Do you know what you wanna major in?

findingnemo · 10-30-2008, 08:56 PM

I checked out Creighton this summer. Haven't had an official visit yet. I'm not sure what I'll major in. Maybe Bio. What's your major? What majors are most popular there?

pccool52 · 11-01-2008, 02:01 PM

I'm majoring in biology with premed focus. I would say about half the students here are pre health (nursing, pharm, med, etc) so their are a ton of biology majors. If you can, you should really try to schedule an official visit!

findingnemo · 11-01-2008, 05:06 PM

I am planning on applying to Creighton and will definitely do an official visit this winter. Thanks for all your help.

JT624 · 11-17-2008, 12:18 AM

1) How is the honors program?

2) How are you handling the rigor, if any?

3) Are the honors core more flexible then the normal core?

I'm already planning to apply and almost have everything done. I also wanted to know what kind of financial package did you get when you got accepted to Creighton.

pccool52 · 11-17-2008, 03:22 PM

So far I have really enjoyed the honors program. The honor's community is really tight nit so you get to know everyone really well and make friends easily. Swanson hall has private bathrooms which is amazing. We also get to schedule are classes one day before all the other freshmen, which you will learn is surprisingly a big deal. So far my honors class has been enjoyable. It is entirely discussion based which is cool. The honors classes themselves are rigorous, especially if you are like me and are more math science based. Generally, I would says its pretty easy to get a B, but hard to get an A. The honors core is much more flexible than the normal core. You can practically choose what subject you want the class to fall under for your core requirement (ex. theology, english, etc.) within reasonable bounds. Overall, the honors program has been a good choice for me so far. Less core requirements, better housing freshmen year, tight community, etc.

JT624 · 11-19-2008, 07:46 PM

Hey thanks a lot for explaining to me your experiences and the overall feel of the Honors program. I really like the feel of a close community and a registration priority. I'll definitely give the honors program a shot after applying to Creighton. I do have one concern that I wanted to bring up. On Creighton's website for the honors program, one of the requirements said that I should have an ACT score of 29 (SAT 1290), and a GPA of 3.7 to apply to the honors program. I am worried because although I meet the GPA requirement, I do not meet the test score requirements. I really hope they'll give my honors application a chance before turning it down because of my test score.

pccool52 · 11-25-2008, 02:03 PM

I know a guy in the honors program this year who got a 28 on the ACT and he is here so there are probably no cut offs. However, if you don't have a 29 or higher your GPA will have to be VERY good to make up for the score (aka close to 4.0 unweighted or near the top of your graduating class). My advice, take the ACT again in December to try and get a 29+. Keep getting good grades senior year; that will help. Also, write some great essays for the honors application because there are like 4 essays you have to write for it. And if you don't get into the honors program, I know one guy from FLP (freshman leadership program) who is transferring into the honors program next semester.

JT624 · 11-28-2008, 11:00 PM

Cool, so does that mean that students who aren't in the Honors program can apply the next year if they don't make it into the program the first time?

Will you tell me how your residence life at Creighton is like? For example, your dorm room, and roommate. I understand that you've told me that the Honors program is a close knit community, do you see your roommate often during the school day? Do you know how roommates are paired up (random, male, female, preference)?

Are you in a lot of different extracurriculars? How do you balance out your weeks at Creighton (schoolwork + personal time)?

Thanks for answering my questions : )

pccool52 · 11-29-2008, 01:29 PM

to answer your first question, the guy I know transferred into the honors program and I think its an isolated case. They can only take in a few more students into the honors program during the school year. There is a catch too. He isn't going to change his dorm location to live with us. There just aren't enough beds. So he loses out on the honor community thing for at least freshmen year. He's just transferring so he can have the better honors core.

Residence life has been awesome so far for me. My dorm room is spectacular (private bathrooms for freshmen, I feel spoiled) and we have walk in closet. As for the other residence halls, they are just your normal run of the mill community bathrooms tiny dorms that are at virtually every other college. Roommates vary significantly, kind of luck I guess to who you are assigned with. Obviously, your roommate is same sex, and there is a little roommate questionnaire you fill out before attending to match with a roommate more like yourself. So far I know very little, if any, roommate conflicts among the floor. I see my roommate very often everyday and my friends on the floor everyday. By the way, honors floor on swanson is one of very few coed floors on campus (aka there are boys and girls rooms on the same floor) which is cool.

I am in a variety of extracurricular activities (like intramural ultimate frisbee and biology club). If you use your time well, balancing schoolwork and personal time is generally easy. Yes, I find myself studying on that occasional saturday night, but that's because I was an idiot and didn't get anything done during the day. Procrastination=bad.

rgdcos · 12-01-2008, 10:50 PM

pccool52, I have a daughter considering Creighton and Notre Dame. How would you compare the two? Or, what makes Creighton better than other schools in your opinion. (She is considering pre-med/biology/math). Thanks in advance for your comments on this highly subjective question.